Israel: Native Plants

March 23, 2018

One sign that Spring has truly arrived is the tiny leaves and tiny figs that begin to appear on the sculptural bare branches of our native fig trees. The leaves are miniature versions of their larger selves, and just so very very sweet that I had to capture the magic on my camera. Enjoy the signs of Spring where ever you may be! And keep on reading to see the tree these leaves belong to!

Spring has arrived here in Northern Israel, and a little walk around town revealed so many flowering delights I just had to share them with you! Now if I can just find the time to take a nature walk to see what is blooming in the fields, more gorgeous flowers I'm quite sure. But with the packed pre-Passover schedule, I'm grateful to have at the least taken in the gorgeous wisteria and more.........

March 16, 2018

The klil hahoresh tree is now in bloom in Northern Israel, and it is truly a delight. The blooms are so unusual, and when one drives out of the city the tree covered hillsides are puncutated by bright pink, love it! Okay, I just realized that while I wrote Red Bush on the photo, this tree is in fact a look-alike cousin of Red Bush, and not exactly the same tree, or something like that, as I have explained in a previous post here.

In any case, name aside, the blooming of these trees is another yearly event, like the blooming of the almond trees, that gives me great joy. A few years ago I designed a garden down the street from our home, and there I planted two Jacaranda trees, who have a stunning purple blooms and gorgeous foliage, though I may just have to include a few Judah's Tree if another garden design project comes around!

February 06, 2018

The almond trees are now in bloom in Northern Israel, right on time I might add, and we are so very happy to witness this lovely passage into Spring yet again this year. I set out for a little shopping trip with my daughter with camera in hand as the store we were walking to is situated in one of the areas with greatest number of old almond trees, and big sigh, what a lovely site! I know so many of you enjoy seeing photos of Isreal, the Isreal that I know and love, so enjoy this little photo essay!

Just by the way, here in Israel (dry dessert areas excluded) the almond trees are the first trees to show signs of life, signaling to the rest of nature that Spring is on its way......and since we are all connected (plants, animals, humans) I think it is also a sign to us to get outdoors, the appreciate the cycle of life/nature and embrace the good. So lets do it!

June 14, 2017

The thorny caper, which generally grows as a weed here in Israel, has such a lovely exotic flower, that one can't help but notice it! I've seen this "weed" growing all over the place, and have always thought that it was much too lovely for something that can be a bit obnoxious. And as you'll see from all the photos that follow in this post, I was atually quite captivated by its beauty earilier this week. The funny thing is that I had no idea what this plant actually was called, and had no success in my google search, until I remembered that I have seen the same plant growing form the crevices in the kotel, the wailing wall, and voila, a name for this little plant was discovered. And, I have to say, was so surprised that this is in fact the plant on which capers grow, wow, I had always wondered about that, and whaddya know......there are even capers in my photos!

I also discovered that the sages compared the Jewish people to the caper bush, any guesses why?